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Computer help needed!

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13:52 / 10.02.07

I need to set up a VPN on my computer so that I can get online. However, I'm running Ubuntu- Breezy Badger, and I've got no idea how to do that on this OS.

Helps please.

16:32 / 16.02.07

No-one knows? No-one?
Oh there shall be a great gnashing of teeth and wailing of cursewords tonight.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

16:50 / 16.02.07

Do you really need to set up a VPN, Swashbuckling? No idea with the OS -- sorry -- but it it's "just to get online," a VPN is kind of overkill.

16:58 / 16.02.07

It's part of my universities system. Anywhere else on campus I can just sort out my proxies and register my MAc address and it all flows golden. But for the hallls I'm in they want us to set up VPNs too. Ridiculuous, non?

17:10 / 16.02.07

I fear linux yet try to be cool by running it on my downloads box. Whenever i need to do anything with ubuntu, i consult this guide and it makes me feel less insecure.

This bit of it should help you with your stuff.

If it doesn't, the Ubuntu fora often prove to be a friendly and helpful resource.

Good luck!

17:18 / 16.02.07

You are a wonder. When the divine potter made you he added glitter to the clay.
STRONG GRATITUDE to you.

17:43 / 16.02.07

I was made by Harry Potter?

Dark side of the Moonfrog1

07:56 / 21.02.07

Question from a colleague of mine, for anyone who was/is skilled in the ways of Mac OS 9...

He's got an iBook G3 running OS 9, and unfortunately the brightness keys on the keyboard have stopped working. Does anyone know if there is a manual way to adjust the brightnes through the control panels?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

17:36 / 22.02.07

Wi Fi issues.

My God, it's never as simple as the shiny grandmas in the adverts make out, all meditating with their laptops in Zen gravel gardens.

My PC laptop says that it is connected, their is a very good connection, the speed is 54mbps, and yet the pages will not load. Re setting the router works, in that after 3 or 4 attempts to reload pages they will finally appear.

The little system tray wifi icon often has a dark screen. This is bad no? With a cable to the router all is good. Is it my PC somehow, or a neighbour stealing my juice?

Sometimes all is good for 3 hours, other times I have to reset the router every 5 mins. Seems to cut off more often if I am downloading music etc.

I should mention that the network was setup by previous occupants of flat, therefore no-one knows passwords etc to change any important settings.

Help please!

18:05 / 28.02.07

Help please!

I have a yahoo account, and today checked my private mail on my work PC, whose Symantec guardian popped up and told me there was a virus alert for the W32.Feebs virus in some spam. Fine, well done Symantec, except it then told me that "Clean failed : Quarantine failed : Access denied". I now cannot log in to my Yahoo Mail at all. Thinking myself clever, I went and cranked up the fossil PC in my bedroom so I could use that to access my account and delete the nasty file, but its OS is too old and I had to use a very basic version of Yahoo Mail which doesn't have a SpamBox. I could only see legit messages. I've restarted this one (I work from home) but still can't log on to my mail.

Any advice would be appreciated. If it appears from the above that I have an idea about PCs, don't be fooled. Please speak English.

18:24 / 28.02.07

Could you unpack that a tiny bit, please, for those of us not totally in the know but who would like to help, i.e.;

I) Is the Symantec checker your works' virus checker or the standard Yahoo filter?

II) If it's now barring you access to Yahoo mail from your work computer, does this mean there's an unresolved security issue or that your permissions have been somehow altered?

III) Is there any way of deploying, say, the most recent version of McAffee's Stinger (Still free as far as I'm aware) onto the problem, or is that not possible in the working context?

I'm no leather-clad-computer hero, but I'd like to help if I can.

18:40 / 28.02.07

Well, er, the Symantec is my work’s software. IT Guru at the office told me to just re-start and hope it came right, but it was 16.59 when I phoned him…I did restart and nothing came right.

does this mean there's an unresolved security issue or that your permissions have been somehow altered?

Sorry, I don’t really know what this means. It’s only on my work PC that I can’t get onto YahooMail. I can get it on my own one, but it’s ancient. There’s no sign of a virus-ey file when I use my own PC. To be clearer, my own old PC is in the next room to my work PC, but I never use it any more.

Is there any way of deploying, say, the most recent version of McAffee's Stinger (Still free as far as I'm aware) onto the problem, or is that not possible in the working context?

Sounds great, but you’re right – I wouldn’t want to meddle with the employers’ property.

Sorry to be vague, but I suppose I’m asking if it would be safe to use a friend’s PC (more up to date than my own old one) to try to access my account and either have another go at deleting the file using their anti-virus software or by just deleting the message which I presume is sitting in the Yahoo Spam filter. Am I making sense? I’m on the edge of my own understanding! Or beyond.

18:41 / 28.02.07

Shite. Sorry, hope that's clear.

18:43 / 28.02.07

Yep, pretty clear.

Sounds like the friend's computer might be the best bet - just make sure it's loaded up to the nines with the tricksiest antivirals out there, plus a few other bits and bobs, and it should be fine.

If once this is done you can get back in just fine at work, then that should be that problem sorted.

I'm not particularly technical - I just get called on a lot at my Place of Employment to do the computer-y stuff, so I've picked up tiny bits here and there.

Kiltartan Cross

20:41 / 28.02.07

You could try clearing out the IE / Firefox / whatever caches (Tools -> Internet Options -> General -> Delete Browsing History) or (Tools -> Clear Private Data). I'm thinking that maybe some file in the browser cache has ended up locked and is preventing the browser from reopening a similar setting. Wouldn't like to bet on it though.

09:35 / 01.03.07

Computer people, your help is needed!

I think I might've asked this before, but other than buying Vista, is there any way I can restrict my own Internet access in the evenings. I find myself, exhausted, vegging out in front of Barbelith when I could be getting on with much more constructive things, and it seems as if I'm going to have to force myself with something other than brute willpower, 'cause that's not working very well.

Please be my leather clad hero.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:48 / 01.03.07

It doesn't work for my Mac, but I hear good things about Temptation Blocker.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:50 / 01.03.07

Bum. That link appears not to go through any more. Nadgers. It will almost certainly be available elsewhere, though. You can use the command line as well, but I'd have to dig out how.

11:51 / 01.03.07

Thanks, Haus.

11:23 / 02.03.07

Leather clad heroes to me!

How do I play a computer game in a window that doesn't take up my entire screen?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

11:30 / 02.03.07

On a PC, Boboss?

If it's a game that has a graphics optimization utility (like Dawn of War on my PC) that might actually be an optimization option. Look for checkboxes.

If not, I believe that most shortcuts, in a Details or Properties tab (I'm not in front of my PC right now; I'm at work on a Mac) have a "run in window" tickbox. I could be remembering Win98, though.

Kiltartan Cross

12:55 / 02.03.07

You could also try pressing Alt+Enter, which is quite often used as a shortcut for switching between fullscreen and windowed modes. You might get strange results when you try it with games, though.

22:56 / 02.03.07

Chums. Why have I been unable to access blogspot blogs for the last 3-4 days? I have Vista, but what could i possibly have done to make them not show up - I've tried various permutations on Google of 'why can i not see blogspot blogs?' and I know they're being updated and presumably published because the search engines told me so. But I cannot see them.

This has happened once or twice to me before, on old comp with XP, but never for such an extended period of time. WHY?!?!?

(All help gratefully received; love & sex, Duncan.)

06:45 / 04.03.07

I have at times had that sort of thing for days on end and, surprise surprise, it always turns out to be BT's fault. You could call them up (or whatever ISP you use) but I generally find that for transient problems like this it's not worth it, as they give you the runaround, suggest you do lots of pointless things with your machine and deny that it's their fault for at least a week.

One thing somebody suggested once is to use OpenDNS instead. It's not something I've tried but the theory behind that suggestion is sound.

10:13 / 04.03.07

Yoo-hoo, leather clad heeeroes!

Further to my post above, is there anything I can use to lock myself out of websites (such as Barbelith) for a limited period of time?

Yes, I am aware I can get a friend to scramble my password, but that's not what I'm after ideally.

Many thanks

21:00 / 04.03.07

Boboss: I think what you, me ,and every other person with a job on this board, needs is Temptaion Blocker

I have a question: can anyone recommend a good patch for PCs that will enable to me to flick between Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs? I have a US copy of The Sopranos Season 1 I'm trying to watch, and I'm on about the last switch you can do. (Why do they do that anyone - give you the opportunity to swtich regions but only 3 times?)

julius has no imagination

21:30 / 04.03.07

Eggs: I'm not sure why they allow those three or five changes, but the general reasoning is probably to avoid making different drives for different markets - they sell the same one everywhere, and you then decide which region to set it to. But I don't know, really, the whole region thing is bollocks anyway.

Anyway. I think AnyDVD (google for it, first result is the right one) can work around region codes. It hooks into Windows transparently, so your DVD-player software won't even know there ever was any protection on the DVD that it's playing back. Unfortunately you have to pay for it, but there's a free trial.
Alternatively, there are region-free patched firmwares for a lot of drives. The problem with that approach, of course, is that even if you find the right one for your exact drive, you still risk bricking it by flashing unofficial firmware patches into it...

07:39 / 05.03.07

Thanks, Eggs, old chum, but Haus has already recommended the excellent Temptation Blocker just a few posts upthread. I'm looking for something a little more targeted

07:40 / 05.03.07

Thanks Julius, I'll give AnyDVD a go. Though to be honest, I'm not quite sure what's happening with this DVD player. It seems to be playing stuff from both regions okay at the moment. Who knows?

Boboos: Temptation Blocker may not be what you're after. It doesn't seem to be site specific unfortunately. Also, blocks IE but who uses that anymore? There's not stopper for Firefox. If anyone does know a site specific blocker ("beyond willpower") I'm all ears.

07:41 / 05.03.07

xpost sorry. I didn't read the thread also!

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:05 / 05.03.07

Eggs: I'm using RegionKiller 2.5 (freeware) after resetting the firmware on my DVD player.

12:25 / 05.03.07

I've found a decent enough fix while I'm at work, although I'm still looking for a slightly more wieldy home strategy.

Anyone after blocking day-waster sites should give this column a look. I went for the Grease Monkey solution.

20:00 / 17.03.07

I'm trying to rename a bunch of files.

I have about 180 .mp3s that i have downloaded from the BBC, all of which are named with their date but without any 'proper' info(e.g. inourtime_20060601.mp3).

I have a text file which lists the desired filenames alongside the current ones (e.g. inourtime_20060601.mp3|The Heart_ 01 Jun 06.mp3).

In what way can i make my computer swap all of these names around?

I run OS X, so have access to (but no competence with) Unix-y command-line goodness if there are no mac apps for it (I'm looking at you, XK...).

17:42 / 26.03.07

Can anyone explain to me the mysteries of port forwarding? I've just installed utorrent and it's running really slowly, so I understand I need to sort out my ports. Can anyone explain to me just how on Earth you do this? I have a BT Voyager 205 router.

18:25 / 26.03.07

Whoop for torrents!

*ahem*

The Azureus wiki has a small description of port forwarding and this site here seems to be dedicated to explaining the setup of your exact router. Bespoke internets!

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